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The Party of "No"

Technorati and Me

Technorati is indexing me again! They had to make a code change to fix
the problem with my blog getting stuck in their queue. Kudos to Eric M.
and the guys at
GetSatisfaction.com
where they have "community powered support for Technorati".

Well, they're "sorta, kinda" indexing me anyway. It's on a 24 hour tape
delay or something. So I never get picked up by Memeorandum because they
pull from Technorati and Technorati has stuff I posted yesterday
listed as my latest blog entry. And that's old news to Memeorandum.

Wankers.

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One of the guys vying to replace him goes one better. South Ward Councilman
Ras Baraka is tight with Al-Tariq Gumbs, aka "Killer Reek," founder of the
notoriously violent Brick City Brims street gang. How tight?
Baraka wrote letters requesting leniency for Gumbs.

A councilman vying to replace Cory Booker as mayor of New Jersey's largest city
has written letters used in motions requesting leniency for one of Newark's
most notorious gang leaders, The Star-Ledger has learned.

South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka wrote the letters on behalf of convicted gang
lord Al-Tariq Gumbs at his sentencing in 2010, the same year Gumbs was accused
of plotting murders from a federal prison cell in Arizona, court papers
obtained by the newspaper show.

That first letter was dated Nov. 10, 2010 — 10 months after Gumbs was
indicted on the murder conspiracy charges. Baraka's letter was filed in support
of a motion to reduce Gumbs' bail.

The second letter was used two years later in an effort to get Gumbs' sentence
reduced after he pleaded guilty to some of the conspiracy charges from 2010,
according to copies of the letters and court transcripts obtained by the newspaper.

Gumbs' attorney, Thomas Ambrosio, said the second letter was a plea for leniency.

"It was a general, 'Hey, please be lenient on him and I think he's turned his
life around' kind of letter," Ambrosio said.

In the first letter, Baraka said he believed Gumbs could be integral to
resolving some of the gang disputes that often lead to shootings and homicides
in the Brick City.

"Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to communicate with
(Gumbs) through mail and have been personally impressed by his writing
and passion to self correct and be an asset to our community," Baraka wrote.

Why is Baraka trying to get Gumbs out of prison? To broker a "truce" between
the gangs that have turned Newark into the murder capital of the universe.

"All the kids in this city know the legend of 'Killer Reek' in the community,"
Baraka said, referring to Gumbs' street name. "When you walk into a neighborhood
and you say we're trying to put together a truce, and Killer Reek is a part of
this truce, that holds a whole hell of a lot of damn weight."

An interesting idea, until you think about it for more than 10 seconds.
Brokering a truce implies tacit endorsement of the gangs' existence and
raison d'etre, which of course is crime. Drugs. Prostitution.
Robbery. Protection. Carjacking. All that stuff which makes Newark such a
fun place to live and work.

It elevates criminal scum to equals of the city's elected officials,
inflating their egos and emboldening their nefarious activities. Killer Reek
is rubbin' elbows with the mayor man, so he's got juice.

"All the kids in this city know the legend of 'Killer Reek." That's gotta be
the saddest commentary on life in Newark that I've ever heard. A murderous
thug is a "legend?" In what sane universe?

But in Ras Baraka's universe, coddling gang bangers will be Job 1.

If elected, Baraka said, he would not shy away from writing similar letters.
Newark will see its annual homicide total increase for the fourth straight
year in 2013, and Baraka said it's long past time to take a different approach
to crime-fighting, even if that means working closely with the criminal community.

Part of Baraka's public safety plan, dubbed "Project Chill," involves improved
communication with gang members to stymie street disputes. The councilman has
been touting his gang intervention plan all week, in the wake of a series of
shootings that left several teenagers dead, including a 13-year-old girl who
was killed by a stray bullet while taking out the trash on Christmas night.

I'd be beating the bushes trying to catch the killers. But apparently that's
so last century, or something. Ras Baraka's kinder, gentler approach involves
chillin' while drinking tea and singing Kumbaya and hoping the killers will
mend their ways and take jobs delivering pizza.

Which I'm sure will work out just great.

Is it any surprise that Baraka is the front-runner for Booker's job? A guy
in the pocket of the street gangs could soon be mayor of Newark. My advice
to any decent people still living there is this — Get Out, get out
now, while you still can. Because Newark needs a man like Rudy
Guiliani. But they're getting another Nucky Johnson.